Starry Night was painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889. Although it is just a painting of a village under the night sky, simply looking at it elevates it to another level. Van Gogh uses a flowing style of painting to emphasize nature in particular. At first glance you notice a tree erupting like a great flame into the dark sky, rising higher and higher almost touching the zenith. Next, the mountains far off, which are a darker blue than the sky. You can see them almost towering over the peaceful town like large tidal waves, threatening to engulf all in their path. Then there is the sky itself, swishing and whirling about in an exuberant rush. The stars are like large vortexes, emitting radiant light and pulsating with the rest of nature. The sky around it ebbs and flows around these balls of light in great rushes. In stark contrast to all of this is the town itself, stationary and rigid, within each window you can see a light burning signaling people settling down for the night, completely oblivious to the great commotion of nature.

After looking at this painting for some time, you will notice how Van Gogh wanted to depict nature. There is a certain cyclical aspect to nature which contrasts the uniform forms that we humans have built around ourselves. While we have fixed schedules where days have defined beginning and ends, nature has no such constraints, it is constantly in motion. We can observe it if only we take time off our busy schedules to observe it more, even if that just means a short walk through a park. By observing nature more we can be humbled by its immensity and thereby take solace in realizing how little our everyday problems matter in the grand scheme of things.

I think it is clear to everyone, just how outraged the internet is about Trump being elected. It has come to a great surprise to all of us that it played out this way. It is in my nature however to play the contrarian, that I will, and try and find some positive message in all of this; does that mean that I am for trump? no, I am for the people. It is the people of this country that created Trump, without them he wouldn’t have come so far, let us not forget that. The man Donald Trump is just a popular figure, some love him and most can’t stand him. But what I want to talk about here is the concept of a ‘Trump’. This country had someone like Trump coming to it for a long time, in-fact it created him, his brash and outspoken ways strike almost like a kind of protest towards the current stagnating establishment, it reflects a deep seated frustration that we all have against the system. Trump says he’s anti-establishment and indeed he is, he’s anti ‘their’ establishment, not anti-establishment in general. It is these sentiments that people took to the ballot box.

The american middle class had been almost completely eroded during the great recession of 2008, millions of jobs were lost and thousands of homes were re possessed and it wasn’t just in america, the whole world felt its effects. All this because of the actions of a corrupt banking system and an equally corrupt government who would let it happen and even bail the banks out. How do you think all this would make people feel in the next election? They were mad, mad at the system and mad at how their lives had been destroyed. When a person like Trump comes along who so clearly articulates their frustrations, they had to vote for him, because his opponent is the very thing that destroyed them. Hillary Clinton is the very embodiment of the corrupt status quo, the press would have us believe that she is the paragon of liberal virtue, but this would not be further from the truth. The fact is, people wanted change, and voting for Hillary would not change anything. Things would stay the same as they have and whether or not Trump being elected would bring about good, it will being about change. There is no going back now, americans have already voted in their president and nothing can change that. We can only hope, hope is what we have that brings us together. Unwavering, unchanging hope for a brighter tomorrow.

What does it mean to be an adult? This question must linger in the back of every child’s mind. Once we were young; full of joy and imagination which now, is but a subject of fantasy. Like an evanescent dream, slowly fading away. We have become staunch towards what society dictates us to be, while transitioning into grownups, we change ourselves to fit in, so that we don’t feel left out. We work long tiring hours in hopes that it will all payoff someday and that we will find true happiness, we conform ourselves to rigid standards and lust over material wealth which give us short bursts of pleasure to fill some kind of void within us. When children look at adults they think they are truly odd indeed.

In truth we have lost ourselves, we have lost our appreciation for simplicity and our ability to imagine, but it is not our fault, the world we live in does not allow us the pleasures which we once had, everything moves at a fast pace and there is little time for such things as having fun or creativity, it is a world driven by competition and greed. Adults look at children and wonder how they can keep themselves occupied, for hours on end, doing the most mundane and pointless things, but in truth, they have merely forgotten. They have forgotten how to have fun, in their search for material wealth and money they have become almost mechanical. The message here is not to act immaturely but to think back and remember what made us happy before so that we can once again revive within ourselves our capacity for imagination so that we can grow up to be better adults and in essence, better people.

Every afternoon whenever I get back from class my first thought will always be, how can I kill time for the rest of the afternoon?. And everyday, I find myself engaged in a new activity while I put off all my pressing responsibilities. See, I am a do-work-at-the-last-minute kind of guy and I don’t see myself changing anytime soon. Wether it be watching a video or any other minor thing, I like to keep myself involved in it and it brings me a strange sense of satisfaction.

The entire world in fact, indulges in this feeling as they watch countless cat videos and “vines” as they call it. It’s the reason websites like 4chan and 9gag have gotten so popular and also a major factor contributing to things going “viral”. One of the most pointless examples of my point is “The Dress”, if you don’t know what I’m talking about you probably don’t know what the Internet is or you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last couple of years. I for one never understood what the big deal was, it’s just a dress, it doesn’t matter what it’s color is… Apparently it does matter, a lot, as the Internet went crazy in just a couple of hours and the virality grew; leading to ACTUAL fights between people.

I may portray this phenomenon to be a bad thing, maybe it is, considering the amount of time we all loose collectively. The fact is, the world is a harsh harsh place, and sometimes it gets too much for us to handle. Call it escapism if you want, but we are not machines, we are loving, caring creatures and we need to interact with ourselves to have peace and harmony whithin our communities and I think the Internet is beautiful in the way it facilitates that.

Even as we procrastinate, we still cannot forget our commitments and responsibilities for those things are still more important. Also, while we dawdle away our time, there are two ways we can do it. We can continue our obsession with pointlessness, or we can engages in things that actually mean something, whether that be for the betterment of ourselves or others. We have to learn to use our time better, because there’s only so much of it, and in the long-run we are all dead.

For it is all encompassing and full of dread
As you choose to chop off another head

You are never satisfied and emotionless
What then can stir your wrath?

He who uses my power in spite
Shall feel the wrath of my might
I will bear down on him and cloud his mind
But I will not take him, oh no.
I will let him live his mortal curse
Until he craves my touch like a lover would.

Cursed be he who shall bear this fate
Forever tortured against hells gate.

Never allowed to pass the void
Forever banished from the realm of God.

Man in all his ways is a social animal, he cannot view himself objectively hence he relies on the thoughts and views of society in order evaluate and improve himself. A simple exercise would be to simply to take a look around you while sitting in a crowded place; how do you perceive the people around you? Some people you consider ”hot” or good-looking, some overly extroverted or ”crazy” and some who you never notice at all, they are the unseen, the watchers who are never watched, like that guy in the corner of the library quietly tapping away on his laptop while all the world moves around him in commotion. I am that guy.

I am part of the relatively unnoticed populous, and if you can relate to this then you are one of us too, society calls us ”loners”. But once again, rather sinfully, society seems to have attributed being different to a negative term. That’s just how we are.. I have come to realize this to be an absolute truth just like a scientific law. There is a darkness within the collective masses and it aches to find an outlet through some way.

There is a stark difference between being lonely and being alone. Loneliness is a dark void that you can sometimes physically feel, it’s like a darkness hanging above you, consuming you from within. We have all been lonely at some point; it stems from our inability to fit in, or conform to standards that have been set so high that at this point I fear for the souls of the lonely ones, their numbers are growing and their sadness will soon engulf the world. This seems very grim but the answer lies within us. Yes, I know that sounds overly clichéd but the fact is you should stop caring. Stop caring about what people think and embrace your emptiness, let it wash over you and you will feel a new sense of freedom in the world. Of course that isn’t easy and the world doesn’t make it easier for anyone; that’s why you must find the courage within yourself to try. Most of the time you will discover yourself more, maybe even find your purpose in life. So here’s to trying and not giving a shit.